President Bola Tinubu has dispatched a senior delegation to London to address the situation of Ike Ekweremadu, former deputy senate president, who has been imprisoned in the UK since March 2023.
The delegation includes Yusuf Tuggar, minister of foreign affairs; and Lateef Fagbemi, attorney general and minister of justice.
The team arrived in London on Monday and held discussions with officials of the UK’s ministry of justice.
Alkasim Abdulkadir, spokesperson for Tuggar, told TheCable on Tuesday that the presidential delegation travelled to London to engage UK authorities on the possibility of Ekweremadu serving the remainder of his prison sentence in Nigeria.
Advertisement
THE EKWEREMADU CASE
The Ekweremadus were arrested by the London Metropolitan Police in June 2022 after a man was falsely presented to a private renal unit at the Royal Free Hospital in London as a cousin to their daughter Sonia—part of a failed attempt to persuade doctors to carry out an £80,000 organ transplant.
The 21-year-old man, who was reportedly promised employment in the UK, alerted the police in May 2022, alleging he had been brought to the country for an organ transplant.
In March 2023, the former deputy senate president was convicted of organ trafficking by a UK court.
Beatrice, his wife, and Obinna Obeta, a doctor linked to the case, were also convicted.
It marked the first conviction of its kind under the UK Modern Slavery Act.
On May 5, 2023, Ekweremadu received a nine-year and eight-month prison sentence, his wife was sentenced to four years and six months, while Obeta received a 10-year sentence.
In delivering the judgment, trial judge Jeremy Johnson ordered that Beatrice serve half of her sentence in custody and the remainder on licence.
However, in January, Beatrice was released from prison and returned to Nigeria.